This invention relates to a dust collector guide for a joint planer.
Generally, a joint planer comprises a fixed table and a vertically-movable table which are disposed respectively on front and rear sides of a cutter head. A workpiece is cut, making use of a difference in level or height between the two tables, and a desired depth of cut can be obtained by suitably adjusting the height difference between the two tables. Chips produced during the cutting operation are guided to a dust collector guide disposed below the cutter head, and are discharged to the exterior through a discharge port, provided at the side of the planer, for example, by a flow of cooling air produced by a motor.
However, the conventional joint planer is not provided with any means for guiding the chips to the dust collector guide, nor is it provided with a means for preventing the scattering of the chips. Therefore, when a large amount of chips are produced, such as in the case of a deep cut or a long workpiece, the dust collection efficiency is lowered. Since this dust collection efficiency directly affects the efficiency of the cutting operation, the efficiency of the cutting operation is lowered.
In other words, when a large volume of chips is produced, problems are caused by the chips jamming in the planer, and therefore the feed of the workpiece or the depth of the cut must be reduced. This adversely affects the operability and efficiency of the planer.